1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to voice mail systems and, more specifically, to a method of using a telephone voice mail system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Voice mail systems, or voice messaging systems, may be attached to a telephone network, often through a private branch exchange (PBX). These voice mail systems are used to receive and store incoming voice messages from callers whenever the intended recipient is absent or otherwise occupied. The intended recipient, or voice mail user, may then listen to the stored messages at some future time. A voice mail system is generally implemented either on special purpose computer hardware or a standard computer workstation equipped with a suitable telephony interface. Such voice mail systems are well known, such as the DirectTalkMail® system, available from IBM Corporation, which operates in conjunction with the Direct Talk/6000® voice processing system, also available from IBM. Other examples of voice mail systems are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,648, hereby incorporated by reference.
There are commercially available products that provide links between a personal computer and a voice mail system. CallXpress 3® Desk Top for Windows, a registered trademark of Applied Voice Technology, is one example. These products provide a graphical user interface (GUI) on a personal computer that allows the user to interact with the voice mail system. For example, if a user selects a particular voice message being displayed on the personal computer's monitor, then the voice mail system will ring the user's telephone and play the selected message.
This interaction between the user, using the GUI displayed on the user's personal computer, and the voice mail system has provided greater and more flexible information interchange between the user and the voice mail system than had ever before been possible. For example, a voice mail user is no longer required to remember and perform complex instructions played over the user's telephone by the voice mail system. Instead, the information and instructions may now be conveniently displayed on the computer screen through the GUI. Likewise, user input commands to the voice mail system no longer need to be restricted to the conventional 12 touchtone (DTMF) keys on a telephone keypad, but rather can exploit the whole computer keyboard and full power of the GUI.
While advances with voice mail systems have improved the interaction between the voice mailbox user and the voice mailbox system, the caller who is being asked to leave a message does not receive much helpful information from the recorded greeting delivered to the caller. Indeed, many callers become frustrated and just hang up after receiving a greeting from a voice mail system because, for example, the callers simply cannot tell whether the person who recorded the greeting is in or out of the office on the day the caller calls. A general message of, “Please leave a message”, just doesn't convey the information needed by a caller to determine whether it would be of benefit to leave a message.
Most voice mail systems provide a means for rerecording or updating the user's outgoing greeting, but the means for doing so are often so difficult and time consuming to use that many voice mailbox users rarely update their greetings. Therefore, a caller does not know whether the user will receive the caller's message or return the caller's call today or a week from today. The caller does not know whether the caller should call someone else or leave a message, because the generic greeting received from the voice mail system simply does not contain enough information.
Voice mailbox users may become easily frustrated by the complexity and the time required to update the user's message every time the user attends a meeting, takes a day off, goes on vacation, or is absent or otherwise becomes unavailable to take a phone call.
What is needed is a method that provides a voice mailbox greeting that assists the user to providing an outgoing message that helps the caller to determine whether it would be a good idea to leave a message. What is needed is a convenient method for a user to update the user's voice mailbox greeting. It would be beneficial if the greeting update could be done automatically. It would also be beneficial if the voice mailbox greeting could be selected from a plurality of greetings to provide better information to a targeted caller.